The Exchanges

Q You founded and you've been operating the company for quite some time. We have shifted into a new administration. Has this new administration been supportive of Archer and the industry?

A The new administration has been extremely supportive. Um, they've been great. And I think they look at us, um, as a sort of a couple of different things. One is we represent safety and aviation. I think that's really important, especially today where, you know, aviation is kind of going through some, uh, you know, some, some tougher times. And so we kind of represent the future and a safe product that can be brought to the market. So I think that that's really compelling. Um, two is we represent, um, jobs and manufacturing, um, in America, which I think is also really important. And three is we represent defense in terms of, uh, you know, building autonomous, attributable aircraft to help, um, you know, really protect the country in the, you know, kind of the next generation conflicts. You can see it today by looking at the conflicts that controlling the sky Um, you know, has been, you know, critical to winning the wars. So, um, making sure the U.S. leads in aviation has been a very high priority, and I think as the sort of next generation of aviation companies are born, it's critical that they're built here in the U.S., and so the administration has been extremely supportive. You've seen that, uh, President Trump, uh, you know, uh, signed the executive order, um, which had, uh, you know, big emphasis on, uh, on the eVTOL industry. Um, Secretary of Transportation, uh, uh, Sean …

AI assessment note: “The new administration has been extremely supportive. Um, they've been great.”

Q do follow you on socials. I follow Nikhil on socials, and every day, You're meeting a new family of royalty. You're meeting a new leader of a country. You're constantly in the UAE. I see you at the White House all the time. You guys are in multiple places sometimes like a day. So how do you maintain like mental clarity and at least some sanity through all that travel?

A One is, um, you have to sleep on the airplanes. Uh, so that is a critical, uh, component of this. Two is you have to train your body to be able to handle, uh, any time zone. Um, so you can withstand that. And three is if the project is exciting enough and the adrenaline is going, um, this is like, no, this is like no problem. This is a gift. Um, this is the, it's, it's not, I can't imagine doing anything else. Um, it truly is a gift. And so the trips we take are not vanity. They're always Very carefully chosen, and I won't go unless I think there's an actual real outcome that's important for the company to go do it, because time is just too valuable. The money that we've raised represents time, and I think of myself as I'm in the time business, and I try to give the team more time to be able to accomplish these really hard things, and so, ah, you know, we're working, you know, night and day because the time is finite, um, to get this done, and so it happens to be a period of time where things are, are good. These are the good old days, ah, right now. Um, but I don't take that for granted, because the, the time will run out, the money will run out, and we have to be successful in building a real business.

AI assessment note: “One is, um, you have to sleep on the airplanes.”

Q So you've been building this company for many, many, many, many years. It's very, very difficult. But in the last year, this new administration has clearly unlocked something that like other administrations have not unlocked for many sectors of tech. So what is that feeling like for you? Like, do you feel like you've kind of hit this new growth trajectory?

A So the last administration, they created the framework for the industry. So I, I do think it's bipartisan in the sense that everybody agrees that America should lead in aviation. So I think that is kind of clear, but Actionizing that and putting a plan together for that, the last administration was absent. I, I literally could not get a meeting with Secretary Pete Buttigieg. I couldn't do it. He just wouldn't take the meeting. And so, I don't know if it just wasn't important to him or whatever his reasons were, but as soon as the new administration, the administration got into place, as soon as Secretary Duffy was put into place, literally within five weeks, I had a meeting with him. And I've met him probably on a monthly basis ever since then. He's been there, and there's been executive orders put in place, specific business plans on how to get these aircrafts to market, and so when, when I say that the administration has been, like, extremely helpful to the industry, it's, you can see the evidence. It's very clear, and so, I mean, it's been, I've been to the White House many times. We've been, um, at events, uh, at Mar-a-Lago. We've been, uh, really, all the major agencies have gotten together to come support the industry, and it's not even just an Archer thing. It's an industry thing, because They believe in two things. One, reindustrialization of America is critical, meanin…

AI assessment note: “as soon as Secretary Duffy was put into place, literally within five weeks, I had a meeting”

Q Sorcery at one point. Thank you very much. That was really fun. We had a really good Archer ad in there. Um, for Brex, they're all about spending smarter, moving faster. You're going to be unlocking performance for cities, for people that live in the suburbs, for people that live in the cities. So Could you share more on that and how you're going to mean increasing performance for Americans?

A Today people live and work in cities, um, I think for many reasons, but one is it's convenient, meaning if you live outside the city and you want to drive into the city, you know, that's time away from your kids, your families, or whatever. Um, also I think humans like that. I think humans do like living in, in, in, you know, kind of small areas, and I think they, they enjoy the social interactions of that. But if you did have a, um, an inability to move around much easier, I do think it'll change the way cities Um, will be, you know, built. I think new cities will get built. Um, that'll be much easier to, to travel back and forth. Um, and so ultimately I think transportation generates commerce. I think that's like a big part of it. I mean, look at what aviation did in general. Um, I think we're the next layer of that. And so I do think it will generate not just jobs from building, but ultimately a lot of commerce as people are moving back and forth, creating new experiences. So as an example, if you are 20 miles outside of LA, there's desert. And, uh, you know, there's, you know, you can imagine, you know, a beautiful hotel making this up. Somebody builds some, you know, incredible oasis in the middle of the desert. That's only really 20 miles outside of LA. If you drove, it would take you forever to get there. But if you flew.

AI assessment note: “ultimately I think transportation generates commerce. I think that's like a big part of it.”

Q Because it was like validating that you're doing what you should be doing, and it put more pressure on you, or?

A If, if, in America, I didn't think it was possible for a competitor to weaponize the government to come after you. And we saw that. It was unbelievable. It was, uh, you know, one of my engineers was set up to look like he was, uh, like a Chinese spy, and it was totally faked. And then what was happened was, in the news, it was all conflated, as if, like, uh, you know, Archer had done something when Archer didn't do anything. And so all this stuff got mushed up together, and then the media just loved the headline. It was super juicy. And so they just run with it. And once someone accuses you of something, like, really bad, it's hard to ever, like, Get that back in. So I always look at cases from the perspective of like, well, what if that wasn't true? It's very hard to undo that once things have been said. So like once Archer was attacked that way, it was very hard to like clear our name, and I was always so focused on clearing our name, and then I actually realized the best way to clear a name was actually to just get the product to market, and like nobody actually cares, and like the news cycles, people just move on, and so it was, uh, it was just an interesting dynamic for me, and so I do have lawyers around me at all times now because of that, Um, I think, I, I joke that I have a, almost like a PhD level, like JD, MBA, whatever you want to call it, like in, uh, uh, IP litiga…

AI assessment note: “I didn't think it was possible for a competitor to weaponize the government”

Q You've made huge commercial efforts for Archer. Archer's cool. Like Archer was included in ad with Usher during the Superbowl. You're also going to be integrated and be the provider of air taxi for the LA, 20, 28 Olympics. So what is your positioning for the commercial side of things and who's the team behind it?

A So thank you for saying Archer is cool. We definitely work on that. Um, it started with the design, but I think it's kind of more of like the whole culture of the company. Um, when that thing came about with Usher, um, it was actually, uh, it was, it was a really cool story. People are like, oh, Archer bought an ad in the Super Bowl. That's not true. We did not. In fact, we did not pay money towards that. Um, Usher wanted that, um, in, um, in the Super Bowl. Originally, it was supposed to be, um, he was interested in starting the halftime show coming out of that aircraft. Um, and that's why when I started, it didn't physically fit through the tunnel in Allegiant Stadium. Um, and so that was a change, and then ultimately we made that, you know, sort of that, that video with him. Um, and so it was a, um, um, you know, an interesting journey to get there, but we have had a lot of requests of people that want to showcase the aircraft in lots of different, uh, ways publicly. And so because it's cool, I think we get a lot of attention. It also draws, like, it's, it's a, it's an easy spot for the haters to come out and say, like, oh, Archer's paying for all this stuff. We actually rarely do pay for any of that. It comes to us, and people want to include the aircraft in a lot of these different things, which is, I think, I think pretty cool. Um, but what's, I think, important is bringi…

AI assessment note: “making it a part of, like, mainstream, um, and so by putting it out”